


Defining the Game

by Hibibun



Series: Tsukumoya Drabbles [9]
Category: Durarara!!
Genre: M/M, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 17:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5173310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hibibun/pseuds/Hibibun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Playmate had been a word he'd used to describe their relationship as it was unclear what they actually were depending on who you asked, but it was laced with an irony for how Shinichi first found him and grew to watch the human Izaya Orihara that the other likely didn't know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defining the Game

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not dead, but I don't know how long this trend of writing and updating things will last. I've been playing a lot of Undertale lately and some of Flowery's dialogue reminded me of that game Izaya made and of course brought me to these two. Ahhh, it's been so long since I wrote and posted Tsukuzaya stuff.
> 
> I couldn't think of what else to write for tags since there's not much that goes on...... except Shinichi being a creep. I pulled this out of nowhere and a desperation to just write and post before I deleted or never finished it like almost everything I try to make these days.

He’d been watching the other for longer than he’d like to admit. Normally, his fixation on individuals was short lived; a disturbance or shift in the city would draw his attention and from there it only was a matter of looking for the instigator. Once the question was solved, if the person was interesting enough or provided a chance of repeating their actions from before he’d keep an eye on them.

Izaya Orihara did just that and more to his beloved city, but what intrigued him was how abrupt such a personality became when traced back. It was purely for the intention of seeing what became of Ikebukuro, but with how procedural he tried to be about the matter, Izaya was an exception he tried to deny.

How does someone so seemingly ordinary suddenly become a phenomenon? Model student, won a few awards, nothing at all news worthy until middle school… where they met a certain Shinra Kishitani.

Now Shinichi was familiar with the surname Kishitani; it was rather common, but in particular, this child’s father  _Shingen_ Kishitani was the instigator of far more than his son at the time perhaps realized. But Shinra’s influence on Izaya was something he could not completely examine or understand, let alone rely on.

If anything, from their future conduct after the first motion of interest, it became clearer that whatever Shinra had done to spark change in Izaya was completely accidental.

So he continued to do what he always did, but with a bit more interest than normal.

He watched.

And with that came more questions, and more intrigue; as much as he tried to deny it, there was just something fascinating about Izaya and what he could do with Ikebukuro. It became a game and at the time Izaya was a playmate who didn’t even know he was playing. He’d go about watching the world, finding information for the few who knew how to reach him, jotting bits down for his novel, but he always made an effort to see what the now high schooler was up to in between.

It was one of those moments when Shinichi caught him in the middle of doing something new. The irony of his life reflected back at him as he watched Izaya fiddle with a program to create a game of his own. He’d watch how the other could pull strings and connect various high schools in and out of the area for whatever he felt like, but this had a different tone than those sorts of games.

He ended up neglecting anything else he had planned to do and simply continued to watch Izaya write lines of dialogue and code. Feelings, especially ones besides his own, were difficult to ascertain as for as much observing as he did beyond understanding facial patterns and typical conversation cues, there was no certainty in them.

At most, you could make an educated guess and in many cases depending on the person in question you might be right, but for someone like Izaya it had been tricky to figure out. There were many times Shinichi wondered if Izaya himself knew what he was truly feeling.

What made this so clear may have been watching Izaya create such a questionable game, but there were signs from the beginning that were obvious in retrospect. Seeing him delete lines, much too obvious lines, and replace them with close but not quite the same tone was what gave it away. For, at the very most electronically, Shinichi could see things that Izaya could lie about in finished products, though if it were in person it might be a different story.

He wouldn’t waste time with such hypotheticals though as there is likely never a chance such a thing would happen. It was about time he introduced himself though, it’d be rude by this point not to.

“I’ve beaten your game, and I must say for a first attempt this is a rather interesting take on the limits video games have these days. Enclosed are a few changes to the code that would make it run smoother, although I suppose your intent was to make one in your words, ‘Defeat the challenge.’ and an aspect being just how slow and supposedly difficult it is meant to be. Overall, I’d say that you might do better in a different field, but it is intriguing what you were trying to do. I’ll be looking forward to anything else you create.”

Beyond that and giving his name, it seemed too much to add anything else about what he was speculating in terms of what exactly happened when you beat the game. It was clear that Izaya never expected anyone to beat it. Let alone the person he specifically made it for.

“It wouldn’t hurt to be more honest, but as for what and how you choose to act, I’m not one to critique. Certainly, if you asked me how I obtained this game and managed to beat it, I wouldn’t be able to give you a true answer, or maybe one that you’d be apt to believe. Anyway, feel free to reach me again by this email. I was serious when I said I'd be interested in seeing what else you create.”

In the end, Izaya ended up showing Shinra what he had sent, but curiously not the second email. The questions would only continue to grow, but after the initial scare, he’d like to say that for as eager Izaya is to destroy him, they’ve managed to become acquaintances. 


End file.
